The present invention relates to an eyedrop applicator attachment for squeeze-type eyedrop bottles, and to an integral bottle and eyecup construction.
There have been provided various constructions of attachments for bottles for dispensing eyedrops which include an eyecup intended to hold open one or both of the eyelids, so as to enable drops which are dispensed from the squeeze-type bottle, or the like, and to enter into the eye. West U.S. Pat. No. 2,516,818 provides a medicinal applicator including an eyedrop dispensing nozzle, an eyecup, and a threaded cap for attachment to the neck of a bottle. Mock U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,264, Erwin U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,898, and Mings U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,446 provide generally similar constructions. In addition, McClure U.S. Pat. No. 248,448 provides an eyedrop applicator attachment for a squeeze bottle, and including a cap for the end of the eyecup. While these constructions have been generally effective in enabling the dispensing of eyedrops into the eye of the patient with minimum loss and with substantial effectiveness, there have been found to be problems in the commercially supplying eyecup attachments, and therefor the utilization of them.
Eyecup attachments are not generally provided with the conventional squeeze-bottle eyedrop container which has an attached drop dispensing nozzle. Thus, it is left to the purchaser to acquire from a separate source an eyecup attachment for attachment to the squeeze bottle for the eyedrops.
It has been discovered that there are a large number of producers of small plastic bottles for use as eyedrop dispensers, and that there have now been substantially standardized several different sizes of such bottles, designated in the trade as Size No. 13 and Size No. 15. The Size No. 13 is provided with threads on the neck of the bottle having an outer diameter of approximately 13 mm; the Size No. 15 bottle is provided with threads on the neck having an outer diameter just slightly smaller than 15 mm. In addition, it is now the universal practice for bottles of medication to be produced with some form of tamper-proof construction, and in some cases this is an outstanding bead at the end of the neck, to accommodate and to cooperate with a tamper-proofing seal. It has been determined that the outside diameter of such beads on the Size No. 13 bottles is not always small enough to fit inside the conventional closure cap for the Size No. 15 bottle.
Substantially all of the known above noted Size No. 13 and Size No. 15 bottles have the same pitch threads, which is 0.083 threads per inch. It has been found, additionally, that the distance from the end of the thread of the bottle which is at the distal end of the neck to the end of the bottle, and to the shoulder on an inserted dropper nozzle is a dimension which varies from 0.03 to 0.1 inches. Another important aspect of the eyedrop applicator bottles now being marketed is the distance from the noted tamper-proof seal to the above noted shoulder on the nozzle, which on the Size No. 13 bottles is 0.35 inches. The foregoing factors necessarily enter into the construction of any eyedropper attachment which can be attached to substantially all of the various eyedropper bottles now being sold.